SALT LAKE CITY - Meth is a dangerous drug making a strong comeback in Utah, with the numbers more than tripling in a matter of years.One Utah woman knows all too well the struggles that come with this highly addictive substance."Being on the streets, not knowing if you're going to live another day, not knowing if you're going to see your family. It's hard," said Sabrina Malan, whose life was controlled by meth for 15 years.
"You're not happy with yourself and you just want to keep numbing yourself and you never know if it's going to end," Malan said.
Lives like Malan's can be devastated by drugs that dealers are smuggling into the state.
"That's heartless to me. They don't care, they just want their money," Malan said.
Utah Highway Patrol is seeing more meth than ever being brought into Utah.
"In 2014 we saw 71 kilos of meth seized on Utah roadways," said Lt. Todd Royce with UHP.
Year after year, that number has grown significantly.
"Last year we were at 225 kilos, so you can see that incremental increase," Royce said.
Since 2014, the amount of meth seized during interdiction tripled, and while troopers and canine's are searching vehicles, they're finding more meth than any other drug.
"We'd like to say we get 100 percent of it but we know that that's not the case," Royce said.
This means there are drugs getting into our communities.
And while the nation's focus seems to be turned to the opioid epidemic...
"Meth is kind of the forgotten drug out there, and it's still a huge problem in our society," Royce said. "It's a horrible epidemic and it destroys families."
This epidemic is something Malan experienced first hand. Now she's three years clean and helping other addicts at the Odyssey House in Salt Lake City.
"I would not trade it for the world, my life being sober has been so much easier, and just I never thought sober life could be this good," Malan said.
Malan is grateful for law enforcement for doing all they can to keep the drugs off the streets. UHP says this rise is all supply and demand, and most meth is coming out of superlabs in Mexico.
